Teens in stolen car take police on a chase through streets

What do you do when you’re driving around town and see a bunch of kids rolling around in your recently stolen car?

Wednesday in North Miami-Dade, a man followed his car before passing the pursuit to Miami-Dade police. The chase ended with the car smashing into a North-Miami Dade chain-link fence and four Miami teenagers arrested.

Joseph Phanor, 17, a 16-year-old and two 15-year-olds each were charged with one count of grand theft auto and one count of resisting an officer. As the alleged driver, Phanor got an extra felony charge of high speed fleeing from a marked police car.

According to their arrest reports, after spotting his car at Northwest 52nd Street and Second Avenue Wednesday afternoon, the car’s owner tailed it while calling police. Northside District police took over the tracking at Northwest 103rd Street and Northwest Eighth Avenue. Once the procession reached Northwest 111th Street and Northwest 21st Avenue, police say, cops hit the lights and sirens.

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Instead of hitting the brakes, the suspects punched the accelerator. Police say the stolen car recklessly raced around the area, ignoring all stop signs and speed limits. Until, that is, the intersection of Northwest 25th Avenue and Northwest 93rd Terrace. That’s when they lost control and put the car into the chain link fence at 2514 NW 93rd Ter.

All four scattered and ran. But once police brought out the dogs to assist the humans on the ground and in the air, they rounded up the teenage suspects.